Spreading Far and Wide

How do you rate the realisation of the 6 senses programme last year from the perspective of the crisis which left its stamp on the cultural life of Kraków and almost everywhere else as well?
First of all, we managed to realise all the planned events in spite of the fired up atmosphere reigning in the media and the commonly announced cancelations and indications that it would be impossible to run these festivals. In the mean time, we managed to realise the whole programme and what’s more start up new “6 senses” events, such as the Selector Festival, organised together with the Alter Art agency, and also ArtBoom and the Conrad Festival. Two fantastic events – Misteria Paschalia and Sacrum Profanum for the third year in a row topped the “Polityka” charts – this time ex aequo an event which debuted last year – the Opera Rara concert cycle; the second edition of Divine Comedy was hailed as the most important theatre event in the country and the most important review of the domestic theatre scene, and was furthermore highly rated by a select circle of foreign jurors: thanks to this, Polish theatre is winning publicity over the whole world. All this shows that we have indeed made the European cultural super-league and now we need the determination and enthusiasm to build on the success of the 6 senses programme for the good of the city.

Can we really at this stage speak of international success and the cultural super-league?
The foreign press are writing about us – and writing a lot. If the foreign media are interested in our projects and want to speak about them and participate in them, this is not without significance. Articles in the most important German newspapers such as “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” or “die Zeit”, and the French “Le Figaro”, huge editorial features about us in specialist publications such as “Gramophone” or “Le Monde de la Musique” not only represent the cheapest and at the same time most effective form of advertising but also increase our audience. Kraków a few years ago had the reputation of being a city where it was difficult to organise ticketed events, because it wasn’t easy to sell the tickets: suddenly this problem is over and tickets are selling excellently. This is also happening thanks to modern methods of communication and the consequences of bolstering – often through the internet – consciousness of the quality and prestige of the events and also the mobilised and trustworthy festival community. In this way we can successfully reach out to the kind of client on whom we most depend – intelligent, young and well-off, belonging to the so-called “opinion-forming” group.

Do you mean to say that it is only a question of skilled suport, of event “packaging”.
No, this is above all about maintaining a standard. If, for example, we have formed the intention to create a European-scale festival specialising in the presentation of early music – such as Misteria Paschalia – then we consistently invite performers to participate who are absolutely the best. Today I can boldly assert that there is no phenomenon anywhere else such as Misteria Paschalia, which in the course of eight years has gathered together the international crème de la crème of musicians, and what’s more, from incoming applications, it would be possible to create another top class festival – basically everyone wants to perform here. The success of Sacrum Profanum, a festival concentrating on contemporary music, is based on a similar principle. Thanks to the interest of top performers and the explosive publicity it attracts, we can entrust to it – already from this year – the added mission of presenting Polish music in parallel with the main organisation principle, which invariably concentrates on the output of a particular country or area of homogenous culture.  

And will Sacrum Profanum in this way reach the next stage of development?
This project, created in cooperation with the National Audiovisual Institute, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Ministry of Culture, Polish Radio and TVP Kultura will lead to the situation in which every one of the famous performers will find space in their programme for a work by a Polish composer – and we will obtain the right to record and release the result. The material created in this way will promote Polish music during the Mido fair at Cannes, also serving as an announcement of the Polish presidency of the European Union. 
Let’s remember the remarkable success of the Off Plus Camera film festival – achieved both thanks to the achievement of titular sponsorship and the Polish Film Institute’s guarantee of a huge prize of a million zlotys for the film directed by the next winner; attesting to its growing importance is the signing of an agreement with the Sundance Festival, and also cooperation with the Reykjavík Festival and the most important Asian festival in Pusan, Korea. The festivals’ individual influence is spreading far and wide – and this is the proof.

Will the economic crisis have a knock-on effect on this year’s 6 senses programme?
We all have to make savings and tighten our belts. We have, however, decided on the target of realising everything that we have planned. We have thrown down the gauntlet in the face of the crisis – and even if some of the enterprises will have to be more modest in terms of budget, the resulting cuts will have an exclusively quantitative effect: we can’t and won’t be compromising on quality.